THE SHEEP RECORDS STORY #11: THE MEN FROM S.P.E.C.T.R.E. "WITH THE FINGER ON THE TRIGGER" (1999)

Sheep Records was a Swiss underground label specialized in Garage-Rock, Surf, Lounge and other Rock'n'Roll oddities. Run by Christian Müller from Zürich, along with friends Andi Frick and Andreas Egi, it was active from 1996 to 2004 and published about 30 releases, mostly on 7" vinyl singles.



In october 2006, after about two years of hiatus, all the contents of the now defunct Sheep Records website were deleted from the Internet, and replaced with a blank page announcing that "Der Kebab ist gegessen" ("The kebab is eaten"), a last goodbye and a reference to the label's cataloguing system that included the prefix "kebab" for vinyl releases and "gigot" for CD releases.

"With the Finger On the Trigger" was the first album published by Sheep Records after a series of ten 7" singles and EPs; it was released on CD (...with catalogue number gigot011...) and as a 100 copies limited edition vinyl LP (kebab011) in June 1999. The contents of both versions are identical, here's the track list:

01. Tourney To Meta Luna VI (2:48)
02. The "India" Crowd (2:38)
03. Attack of the Nonfunky White Guys (2:39)
04. Fantastic Device (2:35)
05. Short Trigger (0:39)
06. Party at Largos House (2:34)
07. Secret Agent Man (2:25)
08. With the Finger On the Trigger (2:49)
09. Codename: Action Woman (2:47)
10. Kitchen Shaker (2:15)
11. Dr. Evil's Ray Transmitter (2:02)
12. At the Bikini (2:47)
13. Chase No. 2 (2:18)
14. Mindbender (3:33)

03.12.2014 Update: I discovered today that The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. have opened a page on Bandcamp and are currently offering their albums for download, so I decided to remove the audio files related to this post. If you enjoy their music and want to listen to this album please support them!






"With the Finger On the Trigger" features 14 Hammond-driven, hip-shaking spy themes, here's the personnel/credits list as they appear on the back cover:

Guitar: Gerry Germann
Organ: Mario Janser
Drums: Stefan Saurer
Bass: Rolf Keller

Sitar: Pandit Shankarmann
Percussion: Marius Brun del Re

Recorded and mixed at the Spooky Sound Studio by S. Maeschi.

All tracks written by The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. except "Secret Agent Man" written by Johnny Rivers.

Bandfoto by Luzia Broger.
Cover by Rolf Keller.

The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in their former four-members lineup, circa 1999-2000.

The Men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. have released three albums, here's the group official biography as it appears on their own website:

The Men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (Winterthur, Switzerland) rush out of the speakers, straight through your living room, into your ears and move your pulse. The sound is fit for street races with perfectly tuned cars and at home in NASA promotional films. The rough edges and instrumental action sound echoes the space-rock-bands and soundtracks of the 70s. The catchy beat of Drums, Congas and Bass join the wild Hammond organ and fuzzy Guitar to mash-up the scenes.

"The Living Eye" is the third record of the S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s and released on American label Hammondbeat Records. "The Living Eye" is more indulgent, more psychedelic, and hits the beat harder than the previous records. The songs "Purple Pill People" and "Black Tank", along with earlier productions, have been released on internationally revered labels like Acid Jazz Records (UK).

The Men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. have toured Italy, Spain, UK, Germany, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. The Swiss quintet will be on stage with "The Living Eye" ...heading for lots of trouble.

This promotional card was included in my vinyl copy of "With the Finger On the Trigger".

Here's some highlights from the album courtesy of YouTube, please enjoy "The 'India' Crowd", "Fantastic Device", "Secret Agent Man" and "Dr. Evil's Ray Transmitter"!

More information about Sheep Records and The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is available here:

http://www.surfnroll.de/interviews/sheep/sheep.html

http://www.men-from-spectre.org

http://menfromspectre.bandcamp.com/

http://www.myspace.com/menfromspectre

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22men+from+s.p.e.c.t.r.e.%22

The Sheep Records story will continue in the next months. All your inputs are more than welcome, if you want to get in touch please write to stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!